Rookies and Pros
by Velvetine
Summary: [DannyFlack] My 1st fic, all about minor DannyFlack angst. Danny's new girlfried is closing in on Don's territory. He's the only one who knows how to handle Danny, though. right? Please R&R. alternative ending now up.
1. Enter the Rookie

**Author: **Velvetine

**Rating:** T

**Pairing:** Danny/Flack

**Content Warning:** not for homophobes, contains swearing

**Spoilers:** none

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. But I really should coz these two deserve to be together!

* * *

**_It's the biggest mistake rookies make:_**

He had known Danny for almost six years now. He knew when he needed to be pushed or left alone. He knew his moods and tantrums and all about his character. When it came to his short friend, Don was pretty sure he was a pro.

One day she had waltzed in, carried by slender, over-exposed legs. Her long wheat-coloured hair swaying as she walked up to the receptionist, a small smile on her pink, glossy lips.

"Umm, I'm looking for Danny. Danny Messer." Her voice was high pitched and Don recognised the distinctive Long Island accent.

"Yes, and who shall I say it is?" The redhead receptionist asked dryly, in an almost automatic manner.

"His girlfriend." The receptionist gave a blank and expectant look. "Uh, Emily McKinnon." Don smirked slightly as her remembered a joke about blondes whose bra sizes ranked higher than their IQs.

Just as the redhead picked up the receiver, Don conveniently stepped out of the break room and walked towards her desk. "Don't worry about it, Gladys. I'll take her up." The receptionist gave him a grateful smile before he turned to the blonde. "I'm detective Don Flack. I'll take ya to Danny. Follow me."

The blonde took his extended hand and shook it before following him to the elevators. "I'm Emily, Danny's girlfriend." She said the last part with added zest and Don had to fight back the urge to tell her he already knew, and didn't like it. "So, d'you work with Danny?"

Flack took a second before answering. "Yeah, kinda. I'm a homicide detective and sometimes we're on cases together." _Not often enough._

"Oh, I work at an antiques store in Midtown.. I like jobs where I get to talk to people, y'know? The other day this lady came in..."

Don, being the gentleman he was, decided not to let out a long sigh and listened quietly to her story. The lady who had walked into the store had a broken-hearted daughter who was threatening to go lesbian because her ex-fiancé had broken her heart. Apparently, she'd walked into her apartment only to see him doing the horizontal tango with one of her roommates, on her new divan. Emily stressed the point it had been a pre-wedding gift.

Don was starting to wonder why the story was important or if it had any moral value when the Long Island accent increased in volume. "And y'know, that divan was by THE BOMBAY FURNITURE COMPANY!" She was practically screaming now, not to mention she had started tackling the subject of furniture.

Don, however, had aptly placed her voice in the 'Background noise' part of his brain. He would gladly have asked her to shut up (by now he was seeing that manners got him nowhere), but he knew it would have been a futile endeavour to get a word in edgeways.

_How can Danny stand her! _Don admitted he was a little jealous of Emily. _Okay, a lot. _He didn't need a girlfriend, though. His cause for envy lay elsewhere; he needed _her _boyfriend. It hadn't taken him as long as he thought it would have to just accept he had it bad for his best friend/ co-worker who just happened to be a guy. Okay, so the last part had been somewhat harder to swallow and stopped him from outright flirting with the guy, or going to his devout Catholic mom for advice.

That left him with three options. He could talk to his dad, his buddies from the precinct and lab or his older sister. As far as he could see, there was only one real choice. His dad would bury him alive and his precinct buddies would laugh until they noticed he wasn't joking, at which point the direction of the conversation would change and they'd pretend to never have heard him. The guys at the lab were too close to Danny for Don to even consider talking to them about his...thing for a certain member of the team.

So he'd stuck with his sister. After a nice, scalding shower of fresh coffee and a long hearty laugh, his sister noticed he wasn't smiling and deduced that he was, in fact, serious. Seriously gay.

"I'm not gay!" Don had defended himself. "Danny's juss..." her eyebrows had risen expectantly, "...different." Don had finished, for lack of better vocabulary. He had proceeded to explain as best he could and she had given him her advice.

"Find out if he's interested, and take it from there." Her mellow tone made had made it seem all so simple and her little wink made Don turn a bright shade of pink.

Don looked Emily up and down. What did she have that he didn't? Long legs? _Mine're longer. _Nice eyes? _Ain't like mine've never been complimented._ Large breasts? _Aaah fuck! _Danny loved tits and ass, the guy was a 100 pedigree heterosexual and he'd heard enough stories about Danny's conquests to know that he was hot property._ I don't even have a chance..._

DING! The high pitched noise wrenched a startled Don back to reality. As he walked out ahead of her he noticed her lips were still moving at an incredible speed. The elevator ride had seemed to stretch for hours and Don was having trouble understanding how she still hadn't stopped to breathe or run out of things to say. Emily seemed hell-bent on teaching him the dos and don'ts of interior decoration and everything to do with furniture.

Don almost started believing in God againwhen almost a minute passed, as they walked to the 35th floor trace lab, without a single word from Emily. The glass walls enabled them to see Danny leaning intently over some evidence, brow furrowed in concentration.

As soon as he opened the door, it hit Don like a tsunami. His 6th sense, the Danny sense that people around the CSI in question often acquired, was giving him a code red. Danny was in a worse mood than normal. He turned his head and considered informing Emily on the situation, before deciding to do what pros do best; let the rookie learn the hard way.


	2. Enter the Pro

**_the assumption that fighting fire means rushing in with a stream of water._**

"Danny! Hi, sweetie!" Emily sang loudly, obliviously. She was totally unmindful of the clenched jaw, the fisted left hand and the generally ominous feeling lingering in the room.

Danny looked up at her and answered in a low, barely audible mutter. "Oh...hi Em. Didja need somethin'?" He hadn't even Don, who was hovering silently at the door.

The next thing Don knew the leggy blonde had wrapped her arms around the CSI and looked like she was holding on for dear life. Danny looked stiff but awkwardly hugged her back. _He doesn't like being touched without warning, stupid. _

"Do I need a reason to come see you?" she cooed, much to Don and Danny's obvious distaste. "I just thought you'd like a nice lunch, y'know?" Emily handed Danny a plastic bag Don hadn't noticed she had been carrying the entire time. _So much for bein' a detective and noticing every lil' detail._

"Thanks, Em." Danny paused uncertainly, "So I'll see ya later?"

"What's wrong with you, sweetie?" she asked, the Long Island accented coo coming back at full force.

"S'nothin'. Been having a rough day is all." Danny seemed to be uncomfortable even thinking about whatever was bothering him. Don could sense her next move a mile away. _But if she knows what's good for her, she'll juss leave. _Don knew that was almost impossible. There was something alluring about Danny,akin to a flame; they dance and lick and dare you to touch, but as soon as your hand is close enough, they burn.

"Aww, let's talk about it then. You can't keep it all inside." _Wrong move, Einstein. Jeez, the woman doesn't know the last thing about Danny. He'll talk when he feels like... _If Don had been getting a code red earlier, he was now getting a code get-the-fuck-outta-here.

_**Sometimes, it just makes it worse.**_

"...Em, just fogeddabout it." Danny was barely whispering and Don could feel the anger radiating as Danny started folding into himself, away from the probing blonde. "We can talk later," the CSI added hastily, trying not to sound rude.

"No, Danny, we need to talk. You can't just hold it 'till later." She invited herself closer to him, positioning an arm around his hunched shoulders. "What's the big problem, huh? I'm your _girlfriend_, you can at least tell me tha-"

"EMILY!" Danny growled, a fierce look on his face to match. "I don't wanna talk about it, aright?"

Don actually felt a little sorry for the blonde as her eyes started watering and her cheeks flushed pink. _She shoulda known. The guy needs space right now and she's trying to get him to talk about it. Bad move. _It hit Don that he was taking some kind of sadistic pleasure in watching the fight. It wasn't that he was a particualrly evil person, but she had it coming. He was jealous and the moment she's announced she was Danny's girlfiend he'd been struck with a passionate dislike for her. The fact that now she was face to face with the emotional side of Danny, and was clearly not handling it well, made him happy. It reassured him that their couple wouldn't last, and that just maybe, he'd have a chance.

"You're being such an asshole! All I'm trying to do is help you and you're... you're _screaming_ at me!" Tears started flowing and her pitch increased to a near shriek. "Just talk to me about it!" _The girl's too stubborn. But she's got guts. Not a lot of people push Messer this far. Guts or bad judgement?_

"CHRIST, EMILY!" Danny got up from the stool and kicked it violently. "I don't wanna fuckin' TALK about it! Thanks for the lunch and all but gimme some fuckin' space an LEAVE!" He yelled slamming his palm against a glass wall and nearly shattering it in the process.

Not only had Danny managed to turn the heads of anyone in the neighbouring labs with his exhibition, but also forced the blonde to run out of the lab screaming in an almost ultra-sonic pitch. Don had followed her, more out of pity than the merciless pleasure of seeing her broken by her incapacity to understand Danny. She had played with fire and gotten burned. And when a fire burns, it is unforgiving, indifferent.

_**A fire can't burn forever.**_

About an hour later, Don approached a relatively calmer Danny, smoking on the balcony of a little bar they often frequented. "My day's been so fucked up." Danny offered before Don had the chance to ask if he had really started smoking again. "I need to smoke to... It juss makes me feel better y'know."

_Yeah, I know. _Don had recently noticed that on mornings when he hadn't seen Danny he was more volatile and irritable. Even though he could still keep his calm in most situations he wasn't completely alright until he made sure Danny was.

"So...she's gone, then, huh?" Danny took a long drag and looked at the mediocre view.

"Well, Messer, I think she took yer screamin' as a cue to get outta here," Don couldn't help but chuckle. He figured that by 'gone' Danny had meant the relationship between him and Emily was over. _Thank God..._

"S'not funny, Don. Mac's gonna have my ass for this t'morrow... I _told _her I didn't wanna talk."

"She was just tryna help, Dan." Don was starting to feel guilty for having watched the fight with a sick satisfaction. He sincerely hoped Emily was okay, se had cried the whole elevator ride and ran out of the building. He actually preferred her conversation to her broken-hearted sobs, though the sobs were quieter.

"It's _Danny_. And I didn't need her help...look where _that_ got me!" A bitter expression formed on his face as he gestured, cigarette in hand. "My day was already fucked up coz I managed to lose evidence that Stella needed on a case. Mac _tore_ me apart for that one and told me I needed to pay more attention and blah blah blah. The guy thinks he's so righteous. It's like he's never messed up..."

**_Eventually, it consumes itself._**

Don sat down on the sofa where Danny had relocated himself and listened silently to Danny's rant. He listened while Danny talked about Mac's perfection, Hawkes' know-all-ness, the world's general injustice and whatever else the CSI found wrong at the moment. He listened patiently like a pro, without interrupting. He let the fire die down into ash and acrid smoke. And when Danny had finished, three hours on, Don simply got up and walked to the parking lot with the shorter man.

Don's mind was concentrating on Danny's face, currently beautifully illuminated by the moon. _Damn, he ain't got an idea of what he does to me. I wonder if he'd..._

"M'sorry , Don." came an apologetic yet almost indiscernible mumble, bringing Don back to the issue at hand.

"For what?"

"...Y'know..." Danny looked up at Don. "For making you listen to me ranting and whining and for wasting your time. An-" Don's tongue invaded his mouth and deftly stopped the talking. The kiss was a little longer and sweeter than Don had intended or expected, but he loved every second of it. He was waiting for Danny's reaction, he was waiting for the CSI to either lean in to the kiss, or away. Sure, he'd taken risky measures by full-on kissing the guy, but this guaranteed a yes or no.And, as all pros knew, taking risks was part of the job.

"So," Danny breathed, looking alarmed, "I take that as an accepted apology?" His tone was hopeful, subtly alerting Don that he was definitely interested, and a small smirk was forming on the edge of his lips. "I mean, technically when you..."

"Shut up, Messer." Don said, before leaning in and hungrily kissing Danny again. Except this time, Danny kissed back.

Fin.

-original passage by Jodi Picoult- **It's the biggest mistake rookies make: the assumption that fighting a fire means rushing in with a stream of water. Sometimes, it makes it worse. A fire can't burn forever. Eventually, it consumes itself. **

**A/N- **at some point i may write an alternative ending because it wasn't originally going to end like this. Please R&R, thanks. also, for those who read the 1st part already, i made some minor revisions.


	3. Alternative Ending

Don grudgingly pulled his lips away to feel Danny go limp in his arms. _Geez, the guy passed out! The kiss wasn't THAT bad... _If the multiple whiskey shots fuelling the slurred rant hadn't been enough of an indication that this would happen, the look of sheer exhaustion on Danny's face should have been.

Don propped Danny up against him and proceeded to drag a very slouched CSI to the car.

_**Man is the only creature that fares to light a fire and live with it. The reason?  
**__**Because he alone has learned to put it out.**_

"Mornin', Don." Flack nearly shrieked and jumped out of his skin. Startled by the presence he swivelled around to see who was addressing him. Of course, he already knew thanks to the resonant, mid-pitched and sexily accented voice that always threatened to give him a heart attack, but he just wanted to make sure. He loved to stare at those pink, pouty lips, which he now knew (thanks to taxing investigation) felt as soft as they looked, whenever Danny was talking. _And that was just a kiss..._

"Geez, Messer!" Flack bellowed while consciously trying to throw off all suspicion that his mind was currently divided between the walking sex (wearing a tight, white polo shirt), and thanking whoever invented tight underwear. "You scared the shit outta me!" Don's low voice reverberated in the glass room. He resumed his pre-heart attack activity of placing report copies on Mac's desk. "So...whattaya doin' in here?" he asked rather stupidly considering yesterday's events.

"Waitin' for my Hour of Judgement," came the sarcastic reply, "Whaddaya think?" Danny's shrewd eyes studied Flack's profile.

Don sipped at steaming coffee and rearranged the papers in his files. The heavy, silent tension in the room was broken only by the rustling of papers on the desk and a staccato rhythm as Danny's shoe made repeated contact with the floor.

Finally, Don set the organised stack onto Mac's spotless desk and started towards the door. "What happened last night?" shot the voice from the corner. Normally it would have been an unintelligible, fast-paced question but Don had asked himself the same question over a thousand times last night.

Don did a good job of not sputtering out his coffee, stumbling, shrieking or otherwise making a complete fool of himself. His head was at such an angle that Danny could see his eyes, which would have betrayed his bewilderment.

"Nothin'," Don said, regaining composure, " why?"

Danny, who had been observing with a hawk's eye, opened his mouth and closed it just as soon. The indecisive silence was uncomfortable for both men. "Well," he started and paused, "...I remember... I _had_ a weird _dream_." Don could tell Danny was having trouble choosing his words. "I just wanna know... What happened?" Danny's eyebrows were furrowed and Don was searching his expression for any hint of recollection.

"Nothin'... nothing' happened, Danny." The coffee mug in his hand suddenly riveted Don's pupils when Danny tried to look make eye contact. _Oh fuck! I hope he ain't homophobic or anything... _He briskly walked out before the CSI could say anything more. _If he remembers it he might think I'm... GAY. Or maybe he liked it. Nah, he fuckin' passed out, that's what. _Don downed a huge gulp of black liquid and walked away cursing his stupidity that ever justified kissing Danny and risking everything.

Soon, the sound of a second pair of footsteps behind him was audible. _Oh shit, he's on my fuckin' ass. Is he actually followin' me? _Don knew damn well that Danny was stubborn and persistent, and he should have seen it coming. Having information withheld from him made Danny go crazy, and one way or another, if it meant cornering you in the parking lot, he would get it. Don had kindled a tiny flame but, being ornery as he was, didn't want to put it out.

"Don..." The tall detective stopped abruptly and turned around to face the dirty blonde. "What hap-"

"What, Danny!" Don's voice was now laced with annoyance, not that Danny cared in the slightest bit. "Why d'ya keep insistin' that somethin' went down last night?" Wrong choice of words, in Don's case, things had been going up.

"Why d'you keep actin' like something' did?" The defiant expression on Danny's handsome face was complemented by a look in his eye that Don couldn't quite place. It looked a bit like desperation. _Desperate hear that somethin' did go down? Or somethin' didn't?_

"Nothin' happened." Don insisted insolently, "You ranted, passed out, I took you home and headed back to my place." He resumed his walk down the zig-zagging glass corridors only to promptly hear the second pair of footsteps, this time more pronounced, indicating that Danny was getting impatient. The flames were hot on his heels and he sped up a bit trying to lose him, to no avail. "Don'tcha havta see Mac or somethin'?"

"It's 8 o'clock and a slow Monday. Nobody's in for at least another hour, Don." He felt, rather than saw, Danny smile that sexy, feral little grin. "You tryna get rid a' me? I ain't goin' anywhere 'till ya give me the truth." His voice lowered slightly, "What happened?"

As far as Don knew, the Italian was a man of his word. _The fuckin' stubborn lil' prick! _"Nothin'," Don growled stubbornly. "Nothin' fuckin' happened, Messer! Get THAT into yer thick head!" Again, wrong choice of vocabulary, but Don was too pissed off to entertain the notions that the sentence would otherwise entail.

Danny smiled, and Don felt it. They both knew he was getting under Don's skin. The tall detective decided that if it weren't the sexiest thing in the world, he'd hate that devilish smirk.

"Why can't you tell me that to my face?" The flame increased in size and stayed in hot pursuit of detective Don Flack. "Why can't ya look at me without shiftin' your eyes? Why were ya starin' at me in Mac's office? Why'd ya almost choke when I first asked? And why are ya walkin' so damn fast!"

_Damn CSI detectives...pay too much attention to everything! _Don came to an abrupt halt, pressed the button for the elevator and turned to face Danny. His piercing blue eyes were met by a large, alluring pair of equally blue eyes. Both pairs stared unblinkingly. This was turning out to be a contest, Danny was challenging him, testing his resolve. "You had a weird dream, aright?" His voice was dangerously low-pitched now. "Nothin', nothing happened." Don finished, stretching the words.

Danny was quiet for a second, leading Don to believe he had been satiated with the answer. "I'm not stupid, Don." came the sexy accent as soon as Don let a breath out. "And don'tcha think you're too old to be lyin' like that?" Danny persisted, smirking. The elevator had just arrived and Don was inwardly rejoicing as he thought of escaping. "I mean, you actually think I'll buy that load of bull-"

The dirty blonde CSI found his words being pushed back down his throat by Don's tongue as he was pulled into the elevator. The kiss was similar to the first, in that it was sweet and spontaneous, and also served the purpose of shutting Messer up. It was, however, more confident on Don's part, but too short lived for both of the involved, each secretly pining for their lips to make contact again.

"That's what happened, Messer." Don breathed out and searched Danny for some reaction. He turned around, disappointed in only the bewilderment gracing the shorter man's features. He pressed a button and the elevator started to move downwards.

"That's ALL?" The words were thick with surprise but held faint undertones of playful mocking and daring.

"Dunno what you were expecting, Dan-" The ebony haired detective words were replaced by a large smile to match that of the infamous feral grin he had turned to see plastered on Danny's pink lips.

Flack hardly had time to hit the emergency stop button before being pulled into a corner, the only one not covered by the video surveillance camera, by a very naughty-looking Danny with a firm grip on his tie. And Don couldn't care less because, after all, he had a whole hour.

Fin.

**A/N: **my alternative end and 1st fic is COMPLETED! reviews are appreciated. i prefer this ending to the other and i'd like to know which one you guys prefer. thanks for reading!


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